While authority officials in Washington advise unpaid federal workers to take out loans and seek credit from friendly grocers kind of than visit food pantries, the financial industry is donating relief funds as a partial government shutdown was nearing its sixth week.
The modern is J.P. Morgan Chase, which told employees in a note from CEO Jamie Dimon on Friday it was giving $1 million to Nourishing America and United Way Worldwide to provide meals, financial services, counseling and other aid to federal workers and their families.
“We need a reasonable solution to the shutdown and want to see it end immediately,” Dimon said. J.P. Morgan will match employee donations to the notwithstanding organizations and make volunteer opportunities available.
On Friday afternoon, President Donald Trump announced an agreement that see fit reopen the government for three weeks. Congress will have to vote on the agreement before he can sign it.
A day earlier, Business Secretary Wilbur Ross ignited a storm when he told CNBC he didn’t understand why federal workers leave be visiting shelters for assistance when they could take out loans to cover their cash flow. The supervision has promised back pay when it reopens, “there’s no real reason why they shouldn’t be able to get a loan against it,” Ross ordered.
Trump, later defending Ross’s comments, added that local businesses like grocers would “manipulate along” with the federal workers until they can get back to work. More than 800,000 workers play a joke on been working without pay or told to stay home since Dec. 22, putting families and communities under fiscal stress. On Friday, they missed their second paycheck because of the shutdown.
“Local people know who they are when they go for groceries and the whole else,” Trump said. “And I think what Wilbur was probably trying to say is that they will work along. I identify banks are working along. If you have mortgages, the mortgagees, the folks collecting the interest and all of those things, they stir along. And that’s what happens in a time like this. They know the people, they’ve been take care of with them for years and they work along.”
Already credit unions like PenFed that succeed with federal employees were pitching in to provide relief to members. A number of them are offering no-interest credits to cover lost pay during the shutdown.
Congress was trying to hammer out a way to reopen the government after the Senate failed to old-fashioned two bills on Thursday. On Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration halted flights temporarily into New York’s LaGuardia Airport due to a shortfall of air traffic controllers, who are among those working without pay. Flights were also delayed at other airports, numbering Newark Liberty International.
Here’s what it says:
Message from Jamie Dimon
As the government shutdown drags on, I scarcity you to know that we’re working hard to help our communities and our customers, just as we do whenever they are struggling. And we’re looking at other headway that we — and you — can help.
Right away in December, we reached out to customers to offer help and are automatically refunding their surcease account overdraft and service fees. We also activated our Special Care Line with a team of specialists who suffer with extended payments on customers’ car loans, provided 90-day relief on their mortgages, and removed minimum payments on their confidence cards, limiting the impact on their credit reports. And we’re looking at ways to help small businesses, such as cross over loans for our customers seeking SBA real estate loans.
Please help us get the word out to your friends, neighbors and derivation hurt by the shutdown, to call our Special Care Line at 888-356-0023. We’re here to help our customers, whether they’re a oversight worker, a government contractor or simply an employee at the diner across from a shuttered federal office.
Today, JPMorgan Pursuit is also committing $1 million to Feeding America and United Way Worldwide to provide meals, financial services, lawyer, and other assistance to federal workers and their families who are in need. You can also contribute to these organizations. We will join your donations and make volunteer opportunities available for employees who wish to support these and other organizations stepping up.
We insufficiency a reasonable solution to the shutdown and want to see it end immediately. In the meantime, we continue to serve those who need help.
Thank you for all you do to handle our business forward and strengthen our communities, especially in times of great need.